Harmodius and his lover Aristogiton conspired in 514 B.C. to kill Hippias and Hipparchus, the sons of the late tyrant of Athens, Pisistratus. The plot was betrayed, and Hippias escaped, but later fell from power. Although the motive of the conspiracy appears to have been revenge for a personal insult, Harmodius and Aristogiton acquired immense posthumous fame as tyrannicides, and lived in the popular memory as classical examples of martyrs for liberty.